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San Mateo County Criminal Records
Search San Mateo County criminal case information, understand public portal document limits, and request court copies or your own California history.
Use San Mateo online access to identify the case, not to assume the whole file is online
Find the docket
Start with the San Mateo Superior Court case-access instructions and save the full case number, defendant name, and filing date.
Read available case activity
The Odyssey public portals expose public case information for eligible matters. A docket event can tell you which order or filing to request next.
Order the filing
When the wording of a criminal disposition matters, use Records Management’s copy-by-mail route rather than treating a portal index as the document itself.
Criminal case information and criminal document images are not interchangeable
Use the portal as a locator
The court separates public case access from its copy service. If the criminal portal shows an event but not the filed paper, capture the event date and title, then request that document from Records Management. This keeps the final answer tied to the court file rather than an inference from a docket label.
Prepare a San Mateo copy request the records staff can fulfill
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01
Identify the case
Provide the case number and names of the parties. If the number is unknown, use the public index first instead of asking Records Management to research an open-ended name.
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02
Describe the filing
Give an approximate filing date or a document description such as judgment, dismissal, minute order, or another specific paper.
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03
Prepare return and payment materials
The published mail instructions call for a stamped return envelope and a blank check with a “not to exceed” amount on the memo line.
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04
Allow for the published response window
Records Management says it will reply within 30 days after receiving the request; urgent deadlines should be planned around that stated window.
Published San Mateo copy fees help choose the right format
| Service | Published fee | When it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary copy | $0.50 per side | Useful when a plain court copy is sufficient. |
| Certification | $40 per document | Order only when the recipient requires a certified court record. |
| Search longer than 10 minutes | $15 | Avoidable when the case number and document are identified in advance. |
| Off-site file retrieval | $10 | May apply to older files stored away from the courthouse. |
Task checklist before relying on a San Mateo criminal result
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Confirm the full case number
Keep letter prefixes and other formatting; older or converted cases can be hard to match when identifiers are shortened.
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Distinguish docket data from the filed disposition
A case event can locate the outcome document, but the filed order is stronger evidence of what the court actually decided.
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Ask whether certification is required
A $40 certification charge is unnecessary when a plain copy meets the recipient’s rule.
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Use DOJ only for the subject’s statewide review
The California DOJ record-review route is fingerprint based and concerns the requester’s own state summary, not the San Mateo case file.
A statewide personal history answers a different question
When a person wants to check their own California summary for accuracy, follow the DOJ record-review instructions. When the task is to prove how a San Mateo prosecution ended, stay with the Superior Court and order the specific filing. Keeping these products separate prevents a statewide summary from being presented as a certified county disposition, or a county docket from being presented as a statewide history.